What is this ?

drycreek

5 year old buck +
IMG_2906.jpegResized_20240425_125639_1714067821050.jpegI realize that I should have taken a closer picture, but I didn’t think about it at the time. This food plot consists of sunn hemp, IC peas, sunflowers, and buckwheat. It’s an experiment in accordance with my pursuit of regenerative plotting. Last spring I planted a Green Cover summer blend and it had lots of brown top millet in it, too much for me. I have hogs, and anything that has a seed head attracts them, and I don’t want that. They destroyed most of the millet last summer before I was ready to plant and crimp, thus I didn’t have enough “crimping material”. I had a piss poor rye plot in the fall (I think) because of two factors. First, I didn’t know that I needed to fertilize at 3/4ths the rate on my first year. I follow Dr. Woods but only saw that after I planted. So, this spring I planted the way I always have, essentially starting over. Since I planted two other plots on our lease with this same mix, this just about has to be brown top millet. What say you ?
 
I've never fertilized cereal rye (WR). I know the talking heads like to be perfectionists, but fertilizing WR would be overkill unless you have really crappy soil. I always broadcast seed WR in the fall, it germinates and gets roots established, and then jumps in the spring. Usually get 4'-5' high plants.

The best I can determine is the plant in the pic has grass like leaves.
 
Looks a lot like browntop. Hard to tell for sure - but it sure does look like it. Wouldnt doubt a lot of reseeding would occur as wet as it has been
 
I also dont fertilize wheat or rye - unless in late winter if I want to really put on seed heads with wheat for the doves. Better be ready with the thermal cause the hogs will be on those wheat heads
 
Certainly looks like a something in the sorghum family to me.
 
Remember also that WR is a nitrogen scavenger. If you get is a regular cycle of using WR & other nitrogen scavengers, you will be adding nitrogen for release with should help reduce supplemental fertilizer.
 
Yeah, I almost has to be. I guess the hogs missed some of the seeds. 😜

Cat, I don’t have thermal, but I do have a Sightmark day/night scope on a .6.8 SPC that will get the job done. The wind is usually wrong for my deer stand except in the fall and winter when a front blows in and hotter than the hinges of hell to boot. I usually will park my golf cart in the high weeds on the downwind side but in doing so I can’t see the whole plot. I can see the trail that they usually come out on though, my problem is usually lack of motivation when it’s 95* and 110% humidity. (Also, I’m lazy)😬
 
I've never fertilized cereal rye (WR). I know the talking heads like to be perfectionists, but fertilizing WR would be overkill unless you have really crappy soil. I always broadcast seed WR in the fall, it germinates and gets roots established, and then jumps in the spring. Usually get 4'-5' high plants.

The best I can determine is the plant in the pic has grass like leaves.
I always tailor my fertilizer to the soil test if I have a recent one. Some plots I only test every two years, depending on what I had last time, if that makes sense.
 
Brown top millet or Sorghum is my guess.


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Well, I’m embarrassed to put it mildly. I went back and looked at the ingredients in the GC blend and the plant in question is milo. I would have sworn there was no milo in it, but I would have been (and was) WRONG ! Oh well, at least the hogs will still love me (until I put a bullet in their asses).
 
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